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Saturday, June 17, 2017

Judicial Watch seeks docs "unlawfully removed" by Comey

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group is calling for Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to acquire and release federal records and memos it claims were "unlawfully" removed by former and fired FBI Director James Comey. The group is threatening the FBI with a lawsuit if they fail to comply.Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch wrote a letter to McCabe on President Trump's birthday (June 14) warning of a potential violation of the Federal Records Act, which is the basis for the federal government's policies regarding the "creating, maintaining, and disposing" of federal records. Perhaps this will be Mr. Fitton's birthday present to Mr. Trump.After all, isn't the government supposed to work for us, and doesn't the public own unclassified government documents?Fitton's letter began, "As you may be aware, the Federal Records Act imposes a direct responsibility on you to take steps to recover any records unlawfully removed from the FBI." He was referring to memos unlawfully removed by Comey that could contain contents regarding the Russian campaign meddling investigation in the 2016 US presidential election.The letter went on: "Upon learning that records have been unlawfully removed from the FBI, you then are required to initiate action through the Attorney General for the recovery of records."Fitton spoke to Fox News. "We're looking to get action on the records that Comey unlawfully took from the FBI, and we know initially there are memos, but depending on what the nature of the documents are, there could be liabilities for Mr. Comey," he said.Since the "memos" were written by Comey himself, and because it's unclear how they would be viewed by the courts or the FBI, Fitton insists they are official records.Comey had recently testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he gave one of his memos concerning a meeting he had with President Trump to a friend, Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, who leaked the memo to the New York Times. "I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter--I thought that might prompt the appointment of special counsel," Comey admitted in his testimony.Why isn't that a problem? Just like Hillary Clinton's bleaching her server, the intent appears to be the same in both cases, which is obstruction of justice.In fact, Fitton said that Comey's removing of documents from the FBI is "the Hillary Clinton email scandal all over again."According to former FBI official, John Iannarelli, who spoke to Fox News, "The things Comey allegedly took are not classified. The issue is not him taking documents, but the matter of how he released them--classified or not, there is a procedure in doing that which he did not follow."However, Judicial Watch insists the memos and other related documents he may have were federal records which the Justice Department and the FBI are "obligated" to get back."The former FBI director isn't above the law," Fitton said, "and current leadership of the FBI should stop protecting him and take action."Judicial Watch said in the letter that if McCabe and the FBI don't respond by June 26, they will file a lawsuit in federal district court "seeking that you be compelled to comply with the law."If it isn't too much to ask.